Township reviews flooding issues, funding

December 2, 2013

ALPENA - Alpena Township Board of Trustees received notice from Township Supervisor Marie Twite that the letter of intent sent to request the Detroit District Army Corps of Engineers do a Section 205 study of Alpena Township's flooding issues was processed for funding. The investigation would be under the engineers flood damage reduction program.

"There are several areas we need to address," Twite said. "What we proposed to look at first was the golf course and the French Road area to alleviate that flooding. We really have three major areas that flood."

Besides the golf course and French Road, homes and roads have been affected in the Bloom, Truckey, Hobbs Drive, Princeton and Genshaw areas.

"If we can alleviate some of the water further up, it will help downstream," Twite said. "They are coming in to meet with us. They notified us that they would do that project now."

The feasibility study costs could range from a 50 percent federal and 50 percent non-federal cost share if the study is over $100,000. The project implementation costs are shared at 65 percent federal and 35 percent non-federal for under $100,000.

"If there is a way we can fund this, we're going to," Twite said. "If we can get some partners to help fund it. We did a millage request so that we could pay for these grants, and that was turned down. Now here we have the grant ... but we are hoping that we'll get some partners."

The first half of it is $35,000 for the study.

"I think it would be very prudent if we could split it between the entities," Trustee Matt Dunkel said. "It would be money well spent to have that. Then we have the opportunity to go to the people and say look we've got a plan and this is what it would cost."

The township hopes the City of Alpena, Alpena County, the Alpena County Road Commission and MDOT will join with the township in its support of the study.

Nicole Grulke can be reached via email at ngrulke@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687. Follow Nicole on Twitter @ng_alpenanews.